X-Wing/Tactics/The Galactic Republic

"Think of yourselves as a hand. Each of you is a finger, and without the others you're useless. Alone, a finger can't grasp, or control, or form a fist. You are nothing on your own, and everything together." -Kal Skirata

From the Wave 1 and what we've seen in previews for the next two waves, the Old Republic is turning out to be a star-fighter heavy faction with competitive lists using at least one high PS ace and rarely have more than three ships total. With the previews we're getting an extra dogfighter and a bruiser with the N1 and BTL-B respectively, so this probably won't change anytime soon.

Aggressive Reconnaissance-170 starfighter

Mostly identical to the Rebel variant, but the inclusion of generics means it can be more affordable to deploy.

• Clone Commander Cody comes as a gunner upgrade. When he misses an attack, as long as he rolled at least 1 hit/crit, the defender gets strained. He works best on your highest initiative ship. Snap Shot helps to trigger his ability.
• Seventh Fleet Gunner can grant an extra attack die to friendly ships firing on an enemy that's inside his firing arc. This ability can be recharged by taking a disarm token in System Phase.

Pilots

• 104th Battalion Pilot: Init 2 generic. You could have 4 of these guys and still have room for upgrades. Or a V-19 Torrent.
• Squad Seven Veteran: Init 3 elite generic. He's gonna be your platform for Dedicated.
• "Sinker": A Clone Sergeant in Plo Koon's Wolfpack. Init 3, no Talent. When a range 1-2 friendly in his side arc performs a primary attack, it can reroll 1 die.
• "Jag": The Clone Pilot that Order 66'd Plo Koon. Init 3, no Talent. When a range 1-2 friendly in his side arc defends, Jag can get a target lock on the attacker.
• "Wolffe": Plo Koon's right-hand Clone. Lost an eye to Assajj Ventress, bailed out of the war before Order 66 was given and lived in a tank with several other eligible bachelor clones until participating in the Liberation of Lothal. Init 4 with Talent. Has one nonrecurring, but recoverable Surge. When attacking in the front, he can spend the Surge to reroll one of his dice, but when attacking in the rear, he can recover the Surge to roll an extra die. Veteran Turret Gunner is the obvious pick for gunnery.
• "Odd Ball": One of the Clone Pilots in the opening battle in Revenge of the Sith. Fans nicknamed him Odd Ball and it ended up being canon in The Clone Wars. Init 5. When he fully performs a red maneuver or red action, he can acquire a target lock on an enemy ship in his bullseye arc. R4-P44 is good to have on him to add a calculate token on top of the target lock. Lastly, Synchronized Console is good to have if he ends up not needing to use that lock.
  • Choice Talents: Elusive, Marksmanship, Swarm Tactics.

Delta-7 Aethersprite

Did you like the 1.0 version of Jake, seeing your opponent go beet red when you dance out his arc for the 3rd time in a match... or just the opportunity to spout prequel memes every 30 seconds? Well have we got a ship for you! The Republic has put their best foot forward with a ship that has PTL baked into it and the option to boost its attack and shields in exchange for one agility. The only problem is that with or without the 7B mod, its more vulnerable than other dogfighters so you need to arc dodge and conserve Force points to protect yourself.

• Fine-Tuned Controls lets you spend a Force point to boost or barrel roll after fully executing a maneuver.
• There are two different configuration upgrades.
  • Calibrated Laser Targeting adds an eye to your attack if the defender is in your bullseye. This is good on anybody, but best on pilots with 2 or more Force points, as they can use it and Fine-Tuned Controls both in the same round. It also takes up a mod slot.
  • Delta-7B turns the ship into an MEQ by adding 1 attack & 2 shields and subtracting 1 agility. The cost increases with the pilot's initiative.

Pilots

• Jedi Knight: A generic, but still deadly, Jedi pilot. Init 3, 1 Force. You could squeeze 5 into a squad if you really wanted.
• Ahsoka Tano: Anakin Skywalker's Padawan, discovered by Plo Koon. Left the Jedi Order after being framed for a terrorist attack and helped found the Rebel Alliance. Her ultimate fate is weird and retcon-y. She's a rookie here (by Jedi standards) and has Init 3, 2 Force. When she fully executes a maneuver, she can spend 1 Force to grant an action to a friendly ship range 0-1, even if they are stressed.
• Barriss Offee: Ahsoka's friend who did nothing wrong. Init 4, 1 Force. While any friendly ship range 0-2 attacks a ship in their bullseye, Barriss can spend a Force to turn an eye into a hit or a hit into a crit.
• Luminara Unduli: Barriss's Master. Init 4, 2 Force. Her ability is in interesting inversion of Barriss. She can spend a Force to improve a range 0-2 ally's defense result if they aren't in the attacker's bullseye arc.
• Saesee Tiin: An Iktotchi Jedi Master often seen but unheard during important events. Killed by an old man who was resisting arrest. Init 4, 2 Force. When a friendly ship range 0-2 reveals its dial, you can spend a Force to change that dial to another maneuver same speed and difficulty.
• Mace Windu: The bad mother-fucker himself. YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT Init 5 4, with 3 Force. Mace can be a beast if used right. R4-P17 is definitely good to have.
• Obi-Wan Kenobi: The man who has the advantage whether he or his opponent has the high ground. Killed on a perfectly flat surface with no elevation considerations. Init 5, 3 Force. When a nearby friendly ship spends a focus token, you can spend a Force for that ship to gain their focus right back.
• Plo Koon: The Kel-Dor Jedi Master who discovered Ahsoka. Had a massive influence on the events of the Clone Wars, but was gunned down by Jag in one of the sadder executions of Order 66. Init 5, 2 Force. At the start of Engagement, you can spend a Force to transfer one of his green tokens to a nearby friendly or take their orange token on himself.
• Anakin Skywalker: Luke's father, the best star pilot in the galaxy, a cunning warrior, and a good friend. Betrayed and murdered by Darth Vader, the dick. Appropriately, he is the ultimate high-risk, high reward pilot. When you fully execute a maneuver, you can spend a Force to remove a stress token if there's an enemy ship either in his forward arc range 0-1 or in his bullseye. You can sloop, boost, and focus all in one round if you stick the landing. Of course, this has the potential to go Not as Planned and you'll end up flat on your back, stressed, and nothing to show for it. Use him right and stick him in a Delta-7B with your preferred Force Talent and he's damn near unstoppable. Init 6, 3 Force.

V-19 Torrent

This is about as simple as ships get: 2 attack, 2 agility, 5 hull, and a pretty lackluster dial where bank 3 is red. It's almost a Republic GEQ, but is deceptively tanky with that 5 hull. On the plus side, it can link a barrel roll into an evade, and if you brought Debris Gambit, you can do this without getting stressed. Basically, these are slightly tougher Z-95's with worse dials, use them to block or as cheap missile carriers in a joust. Keep an eye on these because if they get cheaper and/or get access to better swarm oriented mods, they have the potential to be one of the more dangerous swarm options.

Pilots

• Gold Squadron Trooper: Barebones Init 2 generic clone pilot. It's cheap enough you could deploy eight of these guys if you really wanted to.
• Blue Squadron Protector: Init 3 Elite generic. You bring these guys along so they can use Dedicated.
• "Tucker": Clone pilot deployed to break the blockade around Ryloth under Ahsoka's command. Killed by Vulture Droids when Ahsoka pulled an Anakin and ignored orders to pull back. Init 2, no Talent. When a friendly ship at range 1-2 attacks an enemy in your forward arc, you can perform a Focus action. Decent action economy.
• "Axe": Same deal as Tucker. Does FFG just not want the poor girl to ever live that down? Dicks. Init 3 with Talent. After you defend or attack, you can transfer 1 green token to a friendly ship in either of your side arcs. Pretty decent cooperative ability that rewards formation flying.
  • Choice Talents: Juke, Debris Gambit, Composure.
• "Swoop": Another Blue Squadron pilot deployed with Ahsoka to break the blockade around Ryloth and... *checks the wook* ...survived? Huh. Well, alright. That's good to hear. Init 3, no Talent. If a friendly small or medium ship fully executs a speed 3-4 maneuver and land within range 0-1 of you, they can perform a red boost action. This is a pretty situational ability, though it can help Odd Ball get where he needs to go.
• "Kickback": Another survivor of Ahsoka taking after Anakin. Init 4, with Talent. After he barrel rolls, he can make a red target lock action. With Debris Gambit, he can barrel roll, evade, and red target lock. Synchronized Console is a must on him.
• "Odd Ball": This dude again. Same notes as in the ARC-170, sans the droid.
  • Choice Talents: Elusive, Marksmanship, Swarm Tactics, Juke.

Naboo Royal N-1 starfighter

This ship is one of the few things to come out of The Phantom Menace that is universally agreed upon to be pretty cool. The stats appear unimpressive, barely above a Z-95 with 2 attack, 2 agility, 3 hull, and 2 shields, but they're built to capitalize on speed and can perform a free evade action after fully executing a speed 3-5 maneuver thanks to Full Throttle. It gets rounded out with the boost and barrel roll actions. It has upgrade slots for astromech, torp, and sensor.

It's recommended that you get a chrome paint pen and cover over that cheesy silver metallic crap they got at the factory.

Pilots

• Bravo Flight Officer: A PS2 generic
• Naboo Handmaiden: A bodyguard that can turn Eye's into evades or just give free evades to another ship if they are also in a Naboo fighter, but at the cost of it's own evade token, and only if it's also in the attackers arc, and keep in mind that it can only get that evade token if it makes a 3-5 movement. So maybe useful but probably not. However it works a lot better when you team it up with other Naboo fighters since they can keep up with the handmaiden when it moves at speeds high enough to evade. Of the other pilots only Padme, Fittingly, jumps out as having the kind of de-buffing ability strong enough to keep her around and to draw enough fire to be worth it. Even then it's a niche tactic but could draw value as a DISTRACTION at least.
• Dineé Ellberger: If her speed is the same as the enemy that she's attacking or is attacking her, they can't modify their dice.
• Padmé Amidala: A 14 year old queen that's basically a watered down Omega Leader/Midnight in that she only lets an enemy ship modify only one Focus result but can re-roll blanks normally. The flipside is that it means that applies to ALL enemies in her arc whether they're defending or attacking, making her a a very situational de-buffer, as having more than 2 focus results is less common than you think.
• Anakin Skywalker: He knows that spinning is a good trick and can spend his single Force token to get a bonus barrel roll to reflect this. An unusually good ace, considering he's PS4.
• Ric Olié: "If you're not first, you're last!" His attack and defense go up by 1 if he's moving fast enough to get that bonus dodge token. A great flanker.

BTL-B Y-Wing

"'Hey you got the Force on my Y-Wing!' Hey YOU got Y-wing on my Force'"

When the Galactic Civil War broke out, the Rebel Alliance got their hands on the aging Y-Wing and stripped down the frame a good deal to make maintenance easier . The Republic Y-Wing has the frame fully intact, allowing you to change 1 crit into a hit as long as you don't have any faceup crits. The tradeoff? You maneuver dial is bad. You have exactly two blue maneuvers: Forward 1 and Forward 2. You don't even get any blue banks, but holy shit can you tank.

• If your build doesn't depend on the special capabilities of any other astromech, an R4 can fix the shit dial quite nicely.
• The pack includes Chopper, who has two charges that can be spent on red evade actions, even while stressed, which is pretty good on a Y-Wing. When those two charges are gone, he flips to "Erratic," which forces a jam token onto a Range 0-1 ship after every maneuver.
• It also has crew C-3PO for Republic. He has the capability to double-calculate and to reroll 1 defense die as long as he is calculating.
• Ahsoka Tano comes as a gunner here. She can spend her Force point to grant an ally a red focus even when they're stressed. Most likely though, you're sticking her in the chair to modify your rolls.

Pilots

• Red Squadron Bomber: Init 2 generic.
• Shadow Squadron Veteran: Init 3 generic ace.
• "Goji": The clone that dropped the electro-proton bomb in The Battle of Malastare, waking up the Zillo Beast. Allows friendlies to roll an extra defense die while in range 0-1 of a friendly bomb or mine. Makes the area around an EPB very, very secure before the explosion.
• "Broadside": A clone pilot who flew under Anakin Skywalker against Malevolence and in defense of Kamino. Can turn a blank into an eye when attacking in a side arc.
• R2-D2: Since R2 flies from the astro-slot, the empty cockpit frees up a crew slot so he can pilot a Y-Wing with C-3PO making a fool of himself at the helm, which I assume happened in the show. It's been awhile since I've seen it. Anyway, he gets a free calculate token at the start of engagement if there's at least 1 enemy ship in his rear arc. C-3PO is a great choice for stacking up on calculate tokens and for offering up a reroll on the Y-Wing's trademark sucky defense die, but any valid crew can fit into the slot. The weirdest, and likely best choice after C-3PO since few of the other crew 'mesh' with a droid bomber, would be the Senate, which turns the Y-Wing into a weird little tanky command boat, able to tell other ships "Do it" while being able to take a pounding. Not the best coordinator due to the low Initiative but with only the senate and bare ship, it's cheap.
• Matchstick: Clone pilot killed during the Malevolence arc. When firing a primary or turret attack, he can reroll one die per red token on him. You can totally have a VT-49 swarm lock him to grant him rerolls on everything. Veteran Gunner is a good choice here.
• Odd Ball: He's contractually obligated to show up here.
• Anakin Skywalker: Anakin has the same ability here as he does in a Delta-7, which stomps the biggest weakness of the BTL-B.